Just some harmless Renaissance mocking... Did you find it shocking?

Lavinia Fontana (August 24, 1552 – August 11, 1614) was an Italian painter, with a long 40 year career, which was especially legendary for a women in the Renaissance era. This oil on canvas painting of hers, called "Portrait of a Noblewoman", was created in 1580 and is now featured in the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. What I found interesting about this painting was the complexity, elaborate detail, and drama in her dress contrasted with her simple, boring expression. I found it quite amusing that this portrait was supposed to showcase the women's status, class, and power, yet she seemed lost and frankly quite bored and absent-minded in this painting. I decided to pursue this contrast even further and have a little fun with it. I explored the humour and irony in differentiating the person's dull and boring facial expression in the original photo to the strange, vibrant, funny, "out-there" facial expression of the photo-shopped version on the right. My purpose in doing this was to initiate the surprise factor amongst the people viewing this, as well as give them a little laugh. I shot my photo with a Canon Rebel T2i with an 18-55 mm lens, on a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second, and an aperture of f8. I used the various tools available on Adobe photoshop to crop in my photo to the original, and make it appear as real and authentic as possible.

My Name Created by a Dozen Different Objects

For this assignment in grade 11 photography, our task was to take photographs with a digital SLR camera and re-create our names in a banner using letters that wouldn't normally be perceived as that letter. We had to use our imaginations for each image we shot in order to grasp this assignment and execute it successfully and creatively. 

I believe the purpose of this assignment was not just to take pictures and throw them together in order to create our names. I believe that the goal of this assignment was to exercise our minds and use our brains and eyes more actively and precisely than we would on a normal-day basis. Normally we wouldn't look at our school's outside bleachers and see the letter "T", or observe a wheelchair sign in a parking lot and spot the letter "G". Nor would we go to unlock a closet door and grab the handle and say, "hey look, the letter 'i'!" I believe that perception is everything; the way you look at something is always different than the way a someone else looks at that same thing. When you challenge yourself in this way, afterwards you tend to observe the world differently, and appreciate everything in a new light. 

I shot these photos with a Canon Rebel T2i with an 18-55 mm lens at an aperture of f16 and a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds. I found this assignment very challenging, but at the same time I also found it rewarding and exciting. I now grasp a better understanding of my camera and its capabilities, as well as how to use lighting and camera functions more effectively when taking my photos.  Thank you for taking the time to read my blog!